NCIS Ficlets
by xfirefly9x
Summary: Tony, Kate, Gibbs, McGee, Abby, Jen, Ziva. A collection of ficlets based on the characters of NCIS.
1. Break The News

**Break The News**

Prompt: #001 Guilt

Notes: Written for ficlets100.

"Tony."

"Kate."

The two agents acknowledged each other quietly as they met up outside the home of the wife of a seaman who had just turned up dead, and exchanged a look of mutual understanding.

Neither of them wanted to do this, but they had no choice.

It was arguably their fault that the seaman was dead and Gibbs had been firm that he wanted them to break the news. Them.

Telling the families of the deceased was hard enough on the best of times, but this? This was worse.

Solemn expressions, they began towards the house.

"Let's do this."


	2. Strangely, Yes

_(Kate/Gibbs)_

**_Strangely, Yes_**

Her head feels like someone has just hit it repetitively with a mallet. She can barely think, can barely operate. Every sound around her is intensified and played back to her in technicolour.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump!

She groans.

"Do you have any painkillers, Gibbs?"

She tries not to vomit when the tilt of his head – a clear 'no' – sends nausea racing through her.

"None at all?"

He fixes cool eyes on her and shrugs. "Nope."

Gritting her teeth, she tries not to swear.

"I'm in pain, Gibbs. I need painkillers before my head explodes." Flat.

He moves towards her and places his hands on either side of her face. His index fingers find her temples and begin to rub gentle circles there.

"You're giving me a head massage?" One eyebrow shoots skywards.

He says nothing but rather continues to soothe her temples with his hands.

"Gibbs?" she says after awhile, her eyes meeting his. For a moment her pain is forgotten.

He pauses in his massage. "That better?"

She clamps her eyes shut, opens them again.

"Strangely," she says, smiling at him, "yes."

_fin._


	3. All You Ever Do

**_All You Ever Do_**

"Is that all you ever do?"

"Is what all I ever do?" Tony fixes calculative eyes on Ziva.

She nods at him and makes a wild gesture with one hand. "That!"

"What?" he leans back in his chair, plays dumb.

"Those…those _games_ you play. The things you do to keep yourself occupied when you should be doing work." She looks at him pointedly.

"Oh, that!" he says back, smiling lazily. "No," he provides. "I also do this!" He abruptly sits up and clicks frantically at his keyboard. He glances up at her.

"Playing on the computer?"

"No! Well, yes, I do that too, but that wasn't – "

"What then?"

He sighs loudly. "Never mind."

"Whatever."

"But I _do_ do work," he adds.

She smiles, leans forward conspiratorially. "Of course you do," she says. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have a job here."

"Right you are," he nods. "And if you don't stop asking me questions and get to work now, you might not have a job here."

"And why's that?"

"Gibbs."

"He's behind me, isn't he?" She turns to find cool eyes of steel fixed on her. "Hi, Gibbs. I was just – "

"Back to work," he interrupts with a stern but amused smile. "You too, Tony."

"Told you," Tony hisses.

Ziva glares at him.

Gibbs slaps the desk with one hand, startling them both. "Work. Now."

_fin._


	4. Thanks For the Warning

**_Thanks For the Warning_**

The air is thick with the scent of freshly squeezed lemons. When he looks around, he spots the origin of it on McGee's desk. Two halved lemon skins, their flesh gone, sit by a plastic juicer. A cup full of yellow liquid and torn sugar sachets are next to it.

"Home made lemonade!" He grins, beelines for the desk and raises the glass to his lips.

"I wouldn't 'do that if I were you," Kate says.

He pauses. "Is it Gibbs'?"

"No, but-"

He shrugs and takes a long swig of juice while Kate winces at him from behind her desk. He soon finds out the reason for her distress.

He struggles to keep what he hasn't yet swallowed in his mouth, while searching for the bin, for anything he can spit into.

He finds McGee's hat.

"Argh!"

Ah, well. He'll rinse it out. What the Probie doesn't know won't hurt him. Unless he puts the hat on and the lemon juice runs down the front and into his eyes.

Kate smirks at him and he frowns. He tries to ignore the bitter taste in his mouth as he swipes at it with the back of his hand.

"He didn't put the sugar in it, did he?" he mutters with a slight groan.

She shakes her head. Grins. "Nope."

"What about the empty sugar sachets?"

Kate laughs. "He had coffee before."

"Ah. Well, Kate. Thanks for the warning there. Much appreciated."

"Any time."

_fin_


	5. Tiger Cage

_**Tiger Cage**_

"What are you doing, Tony?" Kate peered into the darkened enclosure, intense curiosity and a touch of fear in her expression. She swallowed when he didn't answer and her hand automatically went to her gun, brushing against its cold shaft. "Tony?"

"What?"

"What are you doing?" she repeated.

There was a short burst of laughter. "Exploring, of course. When else, Kate, do you think we'll get a chance like this? It's not every day you can see how the other side live."

"Seriously? Who knows what's in there?"

"Well, Kate," he said. "There are no tigers. The tigers were all killed by that... psychotic freak back there."

"I know. But-"

"But what?"

She sighed. "Whatever. You keep exploring. Catch some tiger disease for all I care."

"Fine," Tony called back. "I will."

"Get out of the tiger's cage, Tony." Gibbs came up behind Kate, startling her. She shut her eyes for a moment and waited for calm to take over her mind again.

"You hear that?" Kate said. "Let's go, Tony."

"Play time is over," Gibbs confirmed.

When Tony padded out of the enclosure, Gibbs slapped him across the back of his head. "That's for wandering off," he said, smirking when Tony groaned. "You're worse than a child. Do I need to get you a collar, Tony?"

Kate grinned and moved past Gibbs to pat Tony on the shoulder. "I saw a collar a few minutes ago if you'd like one."

Glaring at her, Tony made a wild gesture at her with his hands and then reached out and poked her. "I think we all know who out of the three of us needs a collar more than I do."

"Hey!"

"Oh," Gibbs said. "Would you two grow up? And Tony?"

Tony nodded.

"No one needs a collar more than you do."

_fin._


End file.
